A Personal Blog
CSI: New York: Shruggish
Before I post this I have to say that I’m a huge, huge CSI fan. CSI: Miami is by far my favourite, but regular old CSI is very good as well. I also like Law & Order, but prefer Law & Order: CI and Law & Order: SVU to regular old Law & Order.
Suffice to say I’m a big crime drama buff. Love the stuff.
So it was that last night’s episode of CSI: Miami, which kicked off CSI: New York had me very, very, very excited. So excited that I had to have a McFlurry on the way home. That excited.
…
Okay, the show’s over, and you know what? I’m really not thrilled. The characters were subdued, the fancy tricks were getting old and the plot was hard to follow. Oh, and what was with the forced one-line conversations? “Miss moppet got him hard” “Yeah, he likes his tricks with a candle stick” “One word” “Blow” “Yeah”.
I think a large part of my distaste stems from the fact that picking New York seems like such a copout. They can play to all the stereo types, say “ahh… New York” 20 times and just ride the wave.
Far too many of my crime dramas were already in New York (I believe all the Law & Order’s, plus Without A Trace plus The Practice).
One of the biggest reasons I love CSI: Miami (besides the really great characters) is that it is somewhere I’ve never been. So much of the plot centers around things that are very Miami: party scene, the docks, marshes, drugs, political stuff, etc.
I was really hoping the next CSI would be somewhere equally interesting. CSI: San Francisco? I could really dig that. Or how about, even, Washington?
Anyways, “Miracle” comes out on DVD tonight, and while I really wasn’t looking forward to YAARHM (Yet Another America Rocks Hockey Movie… Somehow they really don’t appeal to Canadians) in theatres, it’s good enough for DVD ;)
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on May 18, 2004 at 10:24 am, and is filed under General. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site. |
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about 7 years ago
I had the exact same thoughts on CSI:New York. It just seemed slow, too slow. New York isn’t the right place for the show because I think people expect murder to happen there (for some reason) and since Law and Order has already come and gone we’ve already seen murder and conviction in New York… I think they’re trying to beat a dead horse.
about 7 years ago
New York is just NY. It’s funny, because the crime rate here has become quite low compared to other cities; but there’s still enough raw numbers to make anything believable (plus, there’s the reputation, deserved or not).
The L&O franchise belongs in NY. Except for the female ADA’s, which almost always seem to be an import from somewhere, the characters generally have the “NY attitude” and it fits the show quite well.
Without a Trace is also based in NYC, and it’s good again because of the raw numbers aspect.
The Practice is based in Boston (I think almost all David E Kelly shows are).
Thinking about it, NYPD Blue and Third Watch (shows I don’t watch) are also here, as are some sitcoms.
Besides the raw numbers, there’s just the diverse atmosphere. They can go to any “type” of environment here and you can buy it without being too skeptical.
My guess is many writers/producers are also from here and it’s usually easier to write about a place where you’ve lived than anywhere else. They also want to relate to an audience (many people have been to NY compared to almost any other city in the US; and any time someone can even say “yeah, I remember that”, it can help build an audience).
All that being said, I do like the CSI shows because of the different locales. Perhaps that was also a side-perk to Homicide: Life on the Street when that was on the air (Baltimore). I like non-NY, Boston, LA, Chicago-based shows. It’s just a little fresh air. Cold Case is based in Philly, and even though it’s not like it’s some small town, it’s not always the home of a show and it’s nice to see.
I have yesterday’s CSI: Miami on my DVR waiting for me to watch with my girlfriend, hope I like it :)
“Yet Another America Rocks Hockey Movie”? Perhaps I missed the rest of the series…
Anyway, I wasn’t looking forward to going to see Miracle. I’m a HUGE hockey fan, and have watched a whole slew of documentaries on anything I could have. The 1980 USA hockey team obviously has many made about them. So in my mind, this was sort of like the movie “Ali” (as I’ve watched coutless hours about him) and I thought “why see this in movie-format, I’ve seen most of the real thing?”. AND it’s from Disney? Blah. I’m thinking Mighty Ducks, hip hip hoorays and fluff. But, my girlfriend wanted to see it and thought I wasn’t being fully-serious about not caring much, so we went. I have to say this was the biggest surprise I’ve gotten in a movie theatre in a long, long time. It was done very, very well. No god-like powers from anyone, just hard-work and some luck. It was much more authentic then I thought it would be and the hockey scenes were really re-created well. Hopefully you’ll be as pleasently surprised as I was.
about 7 years ago
I think ‘The Practice’ is set in Boston. But that still leaves the other shows you mentioned along with NYPD Blue, Third Watch et al. So I agree with you, there are a *plethora* of crime related shows set in New York. It wouldn’t have killed them to set it somewhere else would it?
about 7 years ago
something just woke up in my brain not sure why I let it slip by last night. didn’t we see the doorman giving CPR, *then* the dad telling him he’d be in the will as the EMTs pulled up? that doesn’t jive – CPR won’t restart a heart, just manually keep the patient alive until an AED or EMT with equipment arrives.
about 7 years ago
Does it? I was under the impression that CPR could easily restart the heart as it’s muscle stimulation…
I don’t know, and I know that generally it is used until paramedics get there…
Hmm :)
about 7 years ago
well, that’s what we were told during my Red Cross CPR certification last weekend. At the time, we were talking about fibrulation so maybe there are cases wher it can. I’ll ask Alwin.
about 7 years ago
CPR can’t restart a heart. Moreover, the longer the CPR goes on, the lower the chance that they will resuscitate.
That’s the reason we teach people to call 911 as soon as possible. If the patient needs to be defibrillated (shocked), it needs to be as soon as possible – chances of conversion to a survivable heart rhythm drops 7-10 % with each passing minute. Thus the push for publicly available Automatic External Defibrillators.
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/ems/aed.htm
The chances of resuscitating a patient who is at cardiac standstill is even worse, and almost no one survives to discharge from the hospital.
I’m afraid Steve is right – CPR is time-buying procedure until definitive treatment is available.
Now if they aren’t in cardiac arrest, and you pump on their chest, they will most certainly “wake up” – and try to pop *you* in the chest. But that’s a story for another time…
about 7 years ago
Haha, good to know! Not that it matters in real life: you’re doing CPR to save the person, not have a conversation ;-)
about 7 years ago
I don’t watch CSI enough so that it really matters to me, but I always thought (in keeping with the first 2) that the third should be someplace unusual, unexpected… like Detroit, maybe, or Houston or something.
Heh… reminds me of the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update joke… “In order to bolster ratings, CBS’ The Morning Show will now be called CSI: The Morning Show”…
about 7 years ago
After the 3rd boring episode of CSI New York I have had enough. I am going back to CSi, CSI Miami. The 3rd episode about a 10 year old dead guy really put me to sleep. Come on, there must be at least 1 murder a day in New York. No, they have to dig up an old , dried up corpse and the whole department did nothing but try to find out more about that guy. It is too cheesy, even for a CSI show. I prefer CSI and CSI Miami as they have more than 1 case to solve per episode. I think CSI NY is on the way to the morgue at half season if it continues to be so booooooring.